Project Summary

The project will be performed by five Work Packages: 1) Risk informed decision making 2) Precaution and risk reduction 3) Risk deliberation 4) Summer school 5) Dialogue with end users. The first three represent three approaches to risk governance. Risk informed decision making is more based on quantitative assessments than the other two. The precaution and risk reduction approaches involve both qualitative (value - laden and ethical) principles and more traditional risk assessment. The deliberative approach means that more of the risk governance is given to lay people taking their concerns and values into account.

We study principles of the three approaches but also practical experiences. For example, the UK GM Nation project will give us much understanding of a deliberative and participative approach. Precaution and risk reduction will be studied using mostly examples from mobile telephone risk assessment and programmes for the cleaning up and remediation of chemically contaminated sites. The risk informed decision making approach will be studied using experiences from the energy production area. 

Work packages 4 is a summer school that takes  place in June 2007. We will feed the summer school with substance from our case studies. We shall then in work package 5 produce a guidance document for risk governance with policy advisers and policy makers as the main target group. This will be done in interaction them and NGO:s and we shall organize two meetings with this purpose. We also  initiate a standardisation process with CEN (the "European ISO").